190 Questioning the Universe: Concepts in Physics
found twenty in about 3 years. The other problem has to do with not only observing
the supernovae but having the time to be able to measure the light curve. The typical
time for the decay of the light is 20 to 40 days. In order to do this in some system-
atic way, organized and automated searches have been initiated. This has become
extremely important since they can be used to measure universal distance scales. In
fact, their use has led to one of the most surprising discoveries in all of science—the
acceleration of the universe. We will discuss this further a little later in the chapter.
15.3 LIGHT FROM THE BIG BANG: CMB RADIATION
One of the primary pieces of evidence for the big bang comes ...